1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates an Internet payment system and method, and more particularly to an Internet payment system and method having a variety of customizable controls.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Using the Internet has become extremely easy, and one aspect of this ease is that children of very young ages are able to gain access to Internet websites of all kinds and make purchases at a variety of websites. Juxtaposed with this ease is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which lays out specific guidelines for how website operators and online businesses must interact with children 13 and under. In general COPPA requires parental notification and consent prior to an online operator's collecting, using or disclosing a child's personal information. Compliance with COPPA can be daunting for an online business. While some online businesses are taking steps to comply with COPPA, many of the new media companies including Facebook are choosing to avoid COPPA compliance by restricting their sites to over 13's, and foregoing a significant business opportunity in interacting with the under 13 market segment. In the past, parents were often happy to give their children small amounts of money to buy comics and candy from a corner store, there is no equivalent mechanism currently for the internet. The generation of children growing up today have never known a world where the internet was not present and they expect to be able to play games, interact with friends and make purchases online. There is ever increasing pressure on the parents and guardians to provide more online access to their children, while at the same time a worrying lack of control in the online world.
Parental controls are known and generally fall into two categories: active control and passive control. Active controls (e.g., hardware and software firewalls; and hardware access controls and systems) prevent a child from accessing information over the Internet that a parent does not want them to retrieve and view. Passive controls (e.g., a software audit system) allow a parent to audit the information their children have been accessing and the activities their children have been performing while online. While these active and passive control systems help parents to control the information available to children via the Internet, there are no provisions to control the types of services that children may sign up for and/or purchase over the Internet.
Currently, parents may either provide their children with a credit card or purchase a pre-paid card so that their children may conduct a monetary transaction on the Internet. While this may work for a few instances, it is not a viable option with the rapid growth of websites, online games and online applications appealing to children and the ever increasing online footprint of children. The credit card is also particularly troubling since it provides no control or limitation on what or how much the child can acquire.
With the rapid proliferation of websites, online games, and online applications for children under 13, there is a need for a system that parents can setup and children can use to conduct online monetary transactions while limiting or obviating a child's need to provide their personal information. Thus, a system is needed that will enable a parent to manage a child's access and personal information provided to websites, or in the alternative provide parental consent to the collection and use of certain necessary information as well as to control how money is spent at the websites by a child.